Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

The Database of Religious History Workshop at the Cotsen Institute
2022-04-26 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Register hereHybrid event – In-person at Digital Archaeology Lab A163 Fowler and Online (Zoom)Reception: 12pm – Outdoor Fowler AmphitheaterThe Database of Religious History (DRH) is an open access digital repository of information about the global history of religion. The data is gathered through expert-created entries that take the form of structured questionnaires or “polls”. The format of the queries ensures that both quantitative and qualitative information is gathered. This enables users to both browse through individual entries in a manner similar to encyclopedia entries, as well as manipulate and visualize the data in order to compare religious beliefs and practices across time and space. In this workshop, DRH staff will provide an introduction to this resource and discuss new pedagogy packages and polls that will be of particular interest to archaeologists and those in the cultural heritage sector. We encourage instructors and graduate students from history, archaeology, and anthropology departments to attend and sign up as experts, as all global regions and time periods are of interest. We value the time and effort of our experts, and provide a $300 (CAD) honorarium for each completed entry. Each entry is also published through the University of British Columbia library and provided with a digital DOI. This is therefore a particularly excellent opportunity for graduate students to add a publication to their resume. During the workshop, interested experts will be able to start their entries and receive guidance from DRH staff. The workshop is hybrid, and interested attendees should register for their preferred method of attendance using the link provided above. A reception will follow at 12pm – which both in-person and online attendees are welcome to attend. Download the flyer here.pdf

Patterns are Good to Think: Inka Abstraction Across Media
2022-04-25 12:00
Carolyn DeanDepartment of History of Art & Visual CultureUniversity of California, Santa CruzMonday, April 25th at 12:00pm PTRegister hereSponsors: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and UCLA Latin American Institute

Teatime, What Every Conservator Needs to Know About the Complexity of Asian Lacquer
2022-04-22 11:00 - 12:00
Marianne WebbWebb Conservation ServicesRegister hereAsian lacquer is one of those materials that most furniture and object conservators encounter occasionally during their career. Unfortunately, conservation efforts can go dramatically wrong when a sensitive lacquer surface is treated inappropriately. A lustrous black surface can instantaneously turn to a milky brown color. During the active history of an Asian lacquer object this can occur when serving warm sushi or a hot cup of tea. For conservators it can occur during cleaning or consolidation.Fortunately, our understanding of Asian lacquer surfaces has dramatically improved over the last few years. The Getty Conservation Institute is leading the research that demonstrates Asian lacquer is a complex mixture of one or more anacard lacquers with additives such as oil, pigments and resins. Now that we are learning more about the complex nature of the surface, we are beginning to understand how the ingredients affect the behavior.Marianne Webb is an independent conservator and researcher on the west coast of Canada. For 29 years she was the Decorative Arts Conservator at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto where she developed her keen interest inAsian and western lacquer. Currently she is collaborating with the Getty Conservation Institute on their research into the characterization of Asian lacquer and developing cleaning techniques for these complicated surfaces. Marianne earned an honor’s degree in Fine Art from the University of Toronto and a diploma in Art Conservation Techniques from Sir Sanford Fleming College. A founding member of the ICOM-Committee for Conservation -Working Group on Lacquer, she served as its coordinator for 12 years. She received the Samuel H. Kress Publication Fellowship in 1997 from the American Institute for Conservation. The resulting manuscript was published in 2000 as Lacquer: Technology and Conservation.In 2020 she received the Charles Mervin Ruggles Award from the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property.

Career Panel
2022-04-14 17:00 - 19:00
Over ZoomInvited four speakers from different fields and jobs within archaeology (Meera Munoz-Pandya, a Bilingual Museum Educator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; Jorge Peralta, a GIS Archaeologist and Staff Archaeologist at PAX environmental; Christian de Brer, the Director of Conservation at UCLA Fowler Museum; Sarah McCully, the Director of Education and Grants at Landmark West) to speak about their educational and career paths, experiences, and advice; followed by Q&A.

Archaeological Techniques and Excavating the Indus Civilization
2022-04-09 13:00
Jonathan Mark KenoyerGeorge F. Dales Jr. and Barbara A. Dales Professor of AnthropologyDepartment of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Date & time: April 9th, 2022 at 1:00PM PTRegister hereA general overview of the Indus Civilization will be presented along with discussions of how archaeologists find sites, how they excavate them and how they study the artifacts that are discovered from the sites. Special focus will be on some of the traditional as well as innovative new techniques that archaeologists use to discover sites. It will also cover some important analytical approaches that are used to study different types of artifacts to gain unique information about the technologies and social organization of the ancient Indus communities.Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, is the George F. Dales Jr. and Barbara A. Dales Professor of Anthropology, at the Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of numerous books and edited volumes on the archaeology of South Asia and the Indus civilization. He has excavated key ancient cities and elucidated contemporary urban patterns in Pakistan and India. He is a leading figure in South Asian archaeology, history, and ancient civilizations. TFOA_Kenoyer_opt.pdf

Conservation and Restoration Approaches at the Musical Instrument Museum
2022-03-18 11:00 - 12:00
Rodrigo Correa-SalasConservatorRegister hereThe structure, materials and acoustic properties of musical instruments are diverse and delicate. These characteristics will determine whether the instrument can be played (on special occasions) or just be displayed in the gallery.The basic knowledge of the different materials (and their combinations) with which they were built, how they were made, how they were played and on what occasions they were played offers us a good basis and help to evaluate each instrument and know how to proceed to maintain, stabilize, adjust, restore, or fix these sound machines.Born in Santiago, Chile, Rodrigo Correa Salas comes from a family of artists.Prior to MIM, Correa worked as a luthier and instrument conservator for nearly two decades in the United States, Caribbean,Panama, and Chile. He was the official luthier of the annual Casals Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and custodian of Maestro Casals’s violoncello in the Pablo Casals Museum.Correa graduated from Puerto Rico’s Conservatory of Music, with a bachelor’s degree in music education and a minor in violoncello. He later obtained an associate of science degree in string instrument technology from Indiana University, while doing parallel studies in cello. He has played in various baroque, classical, and popular music groups in the United States and the Caribbean.Correa’s role as conservator is to examine, document, restore,repair, and maintain musical instruments and other objects in MIM’s collection, while coordinating closely with the curatorial teamand collaborates in installing gallery exhibitions.

Patricia McCarron McGinn Lecture by Professor Glenn Wharton
2022-03-07 16:00 - 17:00
Join the UCLA Art History Department for the annual Patricia McCarron McGinn Lecture featuring Professor Glenn Wharton with his lecture Why Conserve Cultural Heritage? Reframing a Discipline.This year’s lecture will take place virtually on Monday, March 7 from 4 to 5:30 pm. Please RSVP in advance to receive a Zoom link.Please CLICK HERE TO RSVP About Dr. WhartonGlenn Wharton is Professor of Art History and Professor of the Conservation of Material Culture, as well as Chair of the UCLA/Getty Interdepartmental Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. Professor Wharton most recently taught at New York University as Clinical Professor in Museum Studies; in addition to his academic positions, Wharton is an experienced art conservator with an extensive background in archaeological, sculpture, and time-based media conservation, who has worked and consulted at such museums as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Wharton received his Ph.D. in Conservation and Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London in 2005. He has received, amongst others, a Digital Pedagogy Grant from New York University (2018), a Getty Conservation Institute Guest Scholar Fellowship (2017), a College Art Association (CAA) / Heritage Preservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation (2015), and the Historic Hawai’i Foundation Preservation Media Award for The Painted King: Art, Activism, & Authenticity in Hawai’i (2012). His research areas of interest include archaeological conservation, illicit trade, cultural heritage management, contemporary art conservation with specialization in time-based media, and addressing social justice, inclusion, and climate change in conservation.About the Patricia McCarron McGinn LectureshipThe annual Patricia McCarron McGinn Lectureship was inaugurated in 1992 to showcase the scholarship of a faculty member in the Department. It was established in honor of Patricia McCarron McGinn (1927 – 1991), who was an outstanding student in the UCLA Department of Art History. Her enthusiasm, depth of commitment, and dedication to the challenges of graduate study as a returning student enlivened and expanded the scholarly perspective of the program. To honor her memory, her family, with the generous support of many friends, established the Patricia McCarron McGinn Fund to aid students engaged in the study of art history at UCLA and to sponsor the McGinn Lectureship.

Paso de la Amada: An Early Mesoamerican Ceremonial Center
2022-03-01 18:00
Richard LesureProfessor, UCLA Department of AnthropologyInaugural Lecture in the new Author Spotlight seriesRegister herePaso de la Amada, on the coast of Chiapas, Mexico, was among the earliest settled villages in Mesoamerica. Excavations at the site have revealed extraordinary earthen constructions, including the earliest known Mesoamerican ballcourt. Professor Lesure will reflect on the 30 years of work that lie behind the book Paso de la Amada: An Early Mesoamerican Ceremonial Center, recently published by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. Work by Lesure and numerous collaborators (including UCLA colleagues and students) has led to surprising insights into the emergence of social inequality and the relation between agriculture and settled village life in early Mesoamerica.

Archaeology, Design and Markets in Elena Izcue's Works
2022-02-28 13:00
Jorge CoronadoDepartment of Spanish & Portuguese, Northwestern UniversityRegister hereSponsors: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and UCLA Latin American Institute

Preserving the Wreck of an Intact 17th-century warship – the Challenging and Rewarding Conservation Work at the Vasa Museum
2022-02-18 11:00 - 12:00
Malin SahlstedtConservator, Vasa Museum, Swedish National Maritime and Transport MuseumsRegister hereSince the raising of 17th-century warship Vasa in 1961 after333 years on the seabed of Stockholm harbour, two generations of preservation staff have had the task to safeguard this mighty piece of maritime cultural heritage for the future, a task perhaps as monumental as the ship itself. Contrary to what was thought when the Vasa Museum opened in 1990, namely that the conservation project was finalised and there would be little further need for lab facilities and specialised staff, the gradual development of acidic precipitates on the surface of the ship over the coming decade signalled on-going degradation processes,which called for action and wide expertise. Through a number of interdisciplinary research projects, new knowledge has been built and implemented in museum practice. I will present some of the experiences made and lessons learned over the years, where the securing and maintaining of broad preservation competence have become increasingly important and likewise challening.Malin Sahlstedt studied Conservation of Cultural Property at Gothenburg University and has aMSc in Archaeological Science from Stockholm University (2000). After working in archaeological conservation with the focus on the treatment of waterlogged wood and a research projecton alum-treated archaeological wood at the Swedish National Heritage Board (2002-2009),she is currently conservator at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden (2009-present). Here, in the continuous effort to improve the long-term preservation conditions for 17th-centurywarship Vasa and associated wooden artefacts, her work is concentrated on testing methods and implementing research results in the museum context. She also worked as a conservator in the research project Saving Oseberg at the Cultural History Museum in Oslo, Norway (2017-2018), investigating the preservation status of and re-treatment options for the alum-treated wooden objects of the Viking Ship Museum collection.

All about Field Schools
2022-02-17 17:00 - 18:00
Over ZoomGoogle slides linked

How to Build a Career and Life in Archaeology: Tips from the Hired and Hirers for BIPOC Archaeologists
2022-02-17 12:00 - 14:00
Willeke Wendrich, MODERATORDirector, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology & Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California Los AngelesAngela McArdleSenior Historic Preservation Specialist, Department of Veterans AffairsAlbert Gonzalez Associate Professor of Anthropology & Director of the C.E. Smith Museum of Anthropology, California State University, East BayKristina DouglassAssistant Professor of Anthropology, Penn State UniversityStephen AcabadoAssociate Professor of Anthropology & Director, UCLA Center for Southeast Asian StudiesSarah HerrPresident, Desert Archaeology Inc. Julie SteinExecutive Director of the Burke Museum & Professor of Anthropology, University of WashingtonRegister here

Mucho más que un puente terrestre
2022-02-17 08:00 - 09:00
A book release seminar sponsored by STRI, Panama and the Panamanian ministry of culture. This new book, written in Spanish, presents recent archaeological research in Panama. The book is the first tome devoted to Panamanian archaeology published in Spanish in Panama.

Archaeology in the Popular Black Press: African History in Ebony Magazine
2022-02-08 18:00
Dr. Justin Dunnavant, Assistant Professor, UCLA Department of AnthropologyDarartu Mulugeta, Undergraduate, UCLARegister hereAs increasing calls for science communication encourage archaeologists to convey their research to diverse public audiences, we found it necessary to explore how such research was disseminated in the past. Delving into the archives of Ebony Magazine and the Johnson Publishing Company, we examine the manner in which archaeological research was communicated in the Black popular press from the 1950s into the present. The articles, authors, and subjects provide unique insight into the topics of interest to Black America and speak to the power of the Black press at educating and exciting the public about ground-breaking archaeological research. Engaging Ebony Magazine as a historical archive, we uncover little-known figures and moments in the history of African and African diaspora archaeology and offer suggestions for future directions in science communication research.View the recording here!Dr. Justin DunnavantDr. Justin Dunnavant is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. His current research in the US Virgin Islands investigates the relationship between ecology and enslavement in the former Danish West Indies. In addition to his archaeological research, Justin is co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists and an AAUS Scientific SCUBA Diver. In 2021, he was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and inducted into The Explorers Club as one of “Fifty People Changing the World that You Need to Know About.” He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. His research has been featured on Netflix’s “Explained,” Hulu’s “Your Attention Please” and in print in American Archaeology and Science Magazine.Darartu MulugetaDarartu Mulugeta is a Political Science and Psychology student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is specializing in methods and computing with the primary goal of studying African communities and history. She is currently part of the African Diaspora Archaeology Lab as a Bunche Research Fellow. Outside of school, she volunteers at the Oromo Legacy Leadership and Advocacy Association as an Oromo language teaching assistant. Download the flyer here

ReVisioning the Future of Archaeology - Graduate Archaeology Research Conference
2022-02-04 16:00 - 2022-02-05 16:00
The UCLA Graduate Student Association of Archaeology, an affiliate of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, invites you to attend our 9th UCLA Graduate Archaeology Research Conference. This two day virtual event will take place February 4th (4-5pm PST), and February 5th (9am-4pm PST) 2022.Titled “ReVisioning the Future of Archaeology,” we ask: who is archaeology for, and what tools will we use to (re)design its future? The keynote speaker and graduate presenters will explore topics that consider various questions about archaeology’s role in the present. Topics that bring new ideas, new resources, and new approaches together into an interdisciplinary dialogue.“ReVisioning the Future of Archaeology” seeks to engage with the greater community, and take into consideration artistic visions, collective and community memory, and diverse points of view in order to produce more inclusive practices and an equitable discipline.On the first day, Friday February 4, we will have our keynote speaker, Dr. Uzma Rizvi speak. On Saturday, we will hear from our graduate student presenters., who will present for 20 minutes each, followed by a Q&A and discussion.View the conference website here. Schedule of EventsFriday, February 4th: 4-5pm PSTKeynote address, “The Future Was ___________: A time outside this time” by Dr. Uzma Z. Rizvi, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY; and Visiting Faculty in the Department of Archaeology, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, PakistanWith nearly two decades of work on decolonizing methodologies, intersectional and feminist strategies, and transdisciplinary approaches, Rizvi’s work has intentionally pushed disciplinary limits, and demanded ethical decolonial praxis at all levels of engagement, from teaching to research.Saturday, February 5th: 9am-4pm PST9:00am -10:45am, Session 1: “Multivocal Perspectives on Heritage and Belonging”11:00am -12:45pm Session 2: “Technological Futures in Archaeology”2:00-3:45 pm Session 3: “Performing Archaeology: Re-Engaging with Materials and Their Stories”Register for the conference here.

UCLA/Getty Program’s Distinguished Speaker Series featuring Sarah Sutton: Cultural Heritage and Climate Change
2022-02-04 11:00 - 12:00
Click to RSVPSpeaker: Sarah SuttonDate: February 4, 2022. 11:00amTitle: Cultural Heritage and Climate Change: D(d)iplomacy for Neighbors and NationsCultural heritage has been undervalued as a community and national resource in addressing climate change. Historic landscapes are critical waterline buffers and biodiversity habitats. Structures are refuges and examples of resilient construction. Human-made objects and art hold our identities and the collective knowledge we depend upon for well-being. And our traditions have lessons for sustainability and resilience. These are valuable resources for neighbor-to-neighbor and nation-to-nation relationships that underlay the cooperative action necessary for creating a world where everyone and everything may some day thrive.Presenter Sarah Sutton will share how those who care about cultural heritage have been taking important steps to protect it and to embed it in climate change response as a core component, not an add on. Historic structures and retrofitted modern buildings are increasingly efficient, low-carbon solutions that double as safe spaces for community resilience planning in stable times, and refuges in disturbed times – if left standing. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative is a coalition protecting astonishing amounts of land as habitat and a buffer against riverine flooding. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will now include cultural heritage in its reports to the UN. And when President Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement, he named cultural institutions as valuable partners in tackling climate change. Across the US and now as part of United Nations-level discussions, cultural heritage is critical to domestic and national practices and agreements that create shared solutions.Bio:Sarah Sutton is CEO of Environment & Culture Partners (ECP), a non-profit accelerating cultural institutions’ leadership in climate action. ECP manages the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, a grant program supporting museums’ energy efficiency and clean energy projects, and an IMLS National Leadership Grant creating energy efficiency tools for museums. Sutton is the Cultural Sector Lead for America is All In supporting the Paris Agreement. She is co-author of The Green Museum and author of Environmental Sustainability at Historic Sites & Museums.Sutton is a Steering Committee member and Climate Change co-chair, for Held in Trust, a special program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Institute for Conservation that is shaping the future of the preventive conservation profession. Sutton is a member of the American Psychological Association’s Climate Change Task Force, and was a selected participant in the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Climate Change with the IPCC, UNESCO, and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). Please submit your questions in advance of the webinar via email to:hnadworny@support.ucla.edu by Wednesday, February 2 at 12:00 p.m.

Símbolos, Rituales y Paisaje Durante el Formativo en los Andes Centrales
2022-01-31 13:00
Miguel Guzmán JuárezDepartment of Architecture and Urbanism, Universidad Ricardo de PalmaRegistration Link: http://tinyurl.com/AndArchTalkMGNote: This talk will be delivered in Spanish.Sponsors: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and UCLA Latin American Institute

Making and Selling Drinks and Other Ways to Study Marginalized Ethnic Groups in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Cuzco
2022-01-24 13:00
Leo GarofaloDepartment of History, Connecticut CollegeA discussion of how to study the social history of ethnic groups viewed as marginal in the colonial Andean cities of the 16th and 17th centuries. Studies cases of: indigenous migrants to cities like Lima and Cuzco, including those from Central America and Chile; African and African descendants, including Afro-Iberians, in both cities and present in rural areas production; and people arriving to Peru from in early trans-Pacific diaspora. These constitute three challenging cases for historical study, requiring extra work to detect their traces in the archives and other period sources.Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/AWGTalkSponsors: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and UCLA Latin American Institute

Regional Distinctions of Traditional Palestinian Embroidered Dress, 1850-1948
2022-01-21 11:00 - 12:00
Wafa GhnaimRegister hereEmbroidery in the Holy Land has existed for centuries, showcased in the decorated garments created and worn by Palestinian women for generations, as well as documented by the many international visitors who travelled to Palestine for pilgrimage or tourism. By the mid-nineteenth century, each region of historic Palestine had developed their own distinct styles, through variation of fabric, thread color, motif, and ensemble. Some cities, such as Bethlehem, Ramallah, Yaffa and Gaza, became famous for their unique ensembles, however there are dozens of villager and bedouin styles that exist across historic Palestine. Each style and regional variation speak a language of their own, transformed by the political, economic and social events that occurred at the turn of the century and continue to be cherished by Palestinians today.Wafa Ghnaim is a Palestinian-American artist, researcher, writer, educator, and businesswoman who began learning Palestinian embroidery from her mother, award-winning artist Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, when she was two years old. Her first book, “Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora” (2018), documents the traditional patterns passed to her by her mother. Wafa has since become a leading educator in the field as the first-ever Palestinian embroidery instructor at the Smithsonian Museum, and an artist-in-residence at the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington, D.C. In addition to her extensive scholarship, Wafa continues her mother’s educational legacy through Tatreez & Tea, a global arts education initiative she began in 2016. Wafa has been featured in major media outlets, most recently in Vogue Magazine, naming her and her mother “the world’s leading guardians of tatreez”. Wafa currently resides in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the Tatreez & Tea project, go to www.tatreezandtea.com or follow on Instagram @tatreezandtea.Photograph/Headshot Credit: Carlos Khalil Guzman, 2020

Fun with Pots
2022-01-18 18:00 - 19:00
Over ZoomMentor-led workshop on a particular method (Carly Pope on ceramic analysis)

Embodied Knowledges within Cultural Collections
2021-12-10 11:00 - 12:00
Sven HaakansonPh.D., Curator, Burke MuseumAssociate Professor in Anthropology at the University of WashingtonRegister hereOver the past three decades, in collaboration with my community from Kodiak, Alaska, I have researched museum collections from around the world to learn about and return the embodied knowledge of our cultural history. From masks, clothing, baskets to boats we have systematically taken knowledge that was taken out and brought it back to our communities to use once again. The angyaaq (open boat) from our region was set aside in the 1800’s after contact with Europeans, but thanks to collections we were able to learn about this vessel and reverse engineer the models in order to build a full size angyaaq at the Akhiok Kids Camp in 2016.Sven Haakanson is Sugpiaq from Old Harbor, Alaska. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (2007), the Museums Alaska Award for Excellence (2008), the ATALM Guardians of Culture and Lifeways Leadership Award (2012), and his work on the Angyaaq led it to be inducted into the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame (2020). He joined the University of Washington in 2013. He engages communities in cultural revitalization using material reconstruction as a form of scholarship and teaching. His projects have included the reconstruction of full-sized angyaaq boats from archaeological models, as well as halibut hooks, masks, paddles, and traditional processing of bear gut into waterproof material for clothing. He has and continues to collaborate with the community of Akhiok at their Akhiok Kids camp since 2000.

Buddhist Wall Paintings in Ladakh – Painting Technique, Conservation and Ethical Considerations
2021-11-19 11:00 - 12:00
Sreekumar MenonPaintings Conservator, (Partner) Art Conservation SolutionsRegister hereWall paintings in Ladakh, the earliest specimens of which date from the eleventh century, mirror the development of Buddhism and Buddhist Art in the region.The materials and technique of these paintings,and their iconographic schemes, are complex and have transformed overtime. Many of these paintings have undergone damages due to various intrinsic and or extrinsic factors. Their conservation is a challenge, especially when they are housed in structures that are still being used by the religious community. A wholistic study of these paintings is vital to better-understand their original technologies, and prevent the inadvertent loss of original materials during conservation interventions.This talk intends to discuss the painting technique of the early period wall paintings of Ladakh, their significance, and ethical issues involved while dealing with their conservation.Sreekumar Menon is a paintings conservator based in India. He did his Master’s in art conservation from the National Museum Institute, New Delhi before undertaking internships in paintings conservation at the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage(INTACH), New Delhi, Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge and Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg(SRAL), The Netherlands. He is currently his completing PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. As a partner inthe firm Art Conservation Solutions, Sreekumar has managed and executed various conservation projects in India. He also worked with the Courtauld Institute of Art in wall painting conservation projects in India and Bhutanand has been a programme manager of the Leon Levy Foundation Centre for Conservation Studies at Nagaur, India from 2015-2019.Sreekumar is a fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC)and a guest lecturer to leading conservation programmes in India.

Benin Royal Art and Questions of Restitution
2021-11-12 11:00
Dr. Glenn WhartonChair, UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation of Cultural Heritageinvites you to attendUCLA/Getty Program’s Distinguished Speaker SeriesfeaturingDr. Ndubuisi EzeluombaFrançoise Billion Richardson Curator of African ArtNew Orleans Museum of ArtFriday, November 12, 2021 at 11:00am PDTLive streaming via ZoomRegister hereInstructions to join the webinar will be provided once your registrationhas been confirmed.Please submit your questions in advance of the webinar via email to:hnadworny@support.ucla.edu by Wednesday, November 10 at 12:00 p.m.About the program: Dr. Ezeluoma will discuss the restitution of Benin cultural patrimony. In 1897, the British government acted on a request from the Royal Niger Company to remove the Benin Oba (king), who was seen as an obstacle to trade. A British force of about twelve hundred men supported by several hundred African auxiliaries besieged Benin City. The raid (British Punitive Expedition), as the colonial force was called, bombarded the city and looted five hundred years’ worth of bronze, brass and ivory sculptures. This was a national treasure that constituted the royal archive of Benin’s history. Oba Ovonramwen (ruled 1888-1914) was deposed and sent to die in exile and the Benin kingdom was incorporated into the colonial nation of Nigeria. Conversation on the repatriation of this cultural patrimony rages on today. Dr. Ezeluona will point to current progress and speak to the important role American cultural institutions are playing in the process.

The Joys and Blunders of 25 Years of Work at the 9000 Year-old Town of Çatalhöyük
2021-11-06 11:00 - 12:00
The Teen Friends of Archaeology is excited to invite you to a lecture on the extensive site of Çatalhöyük by Dr. Ian Hodder:The joys and blunders of 25 years of work at the 9000 year-old town of ÇatalhöyükRegister at https://bit.ly/3BBWF0NIan Hodder is the Dunlevie Family Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford, and Director of the Stanford Archaeology Center. He previously taught in the Cambridge Archaeology department. Professor Hodder has also been conducting the excavation of the 9,000 year-old Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey since 1993. He is a well-published author who is known for his numerous books and papers on a wide variety of archaeological subjects. Photos by Jason Quinlan, courtesy of the Çatalhöyük Research Project.

Archaeology Research Support Workshop
2021-11-01 18:00 - 19:00
Over Zoom

New Evidence on a Spartan Religious Center: The Sanctuary of Apollo Amyklaios at Sparta and the Current Research Project
2021-10-23 10:00
UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture | UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology | Archaeological Institute of America–LA County Society | Pan-Laconian Federation of United States and Canada presentStavros Vlizos Associate Professor, Ionian UniversityVicky Vlachou Université Libre de Bruxelles, BrusselsRegister hereAfter registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.The Sanctuary of Apollon at Amyklai (Sparta) was inextricably associated in antiquity with the celebrated festival of the Hyakinthia. Ancient literary sources describe salient aspects of the festival and the cult that was centered around the tomb of the hero Hyakinthos and the altar of Apollo in two succeeding stages that never overlapped each other. Material evidence from the sanctuary area demonstrates the early beginnings of the cult and ritual, already since the mid-10th century BC. By the late 8th to early 7th century BC, the formal delimitation of the sanctuary area, the quantity and quality of the material deposits support the importance of the sanctuary and its festival within the formal institutions of the Spartan polis. It can be argued that the importance of the sanctuary may be related with the seniority of the shrine and the continuity of the ritual activities in this area over the centuries. The lecture shall focus on shifts in use and function of material culture that are parallel to transformations and changes of the social, political, and religious landscape of Sparta. Furthermore, the connection of the cult site to neighboring areas in proximity, further away, and parallel trajectory to the rest of the Spartan sanctuaries shall be discussed.After completing his studies at the University of Ioannina and the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (Dr.Phil.), Stavros Vlizos first worked as a contract archaeologist at the Ministry of Culture (1997-2001) and then as a researcher and scientific associate at the Benaki Museum (2002-2013). As an Associate Professor, he teaches a wide range of courses in Museology and Archaeology in the Department of Archives, Library Studies and Museology at Ionian University. He is director of the Amykles Research Project, associate of the Athens Archaeological Society, corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, and co-founder of the Athens “Roman Seminar.” His research interests and publications refer to issues of promotion and management of cultural heritage and archaeological goods, as well as topics highlighting the material culture of Ancient and Roman Greece and the importance of ancient sanctuaries diachronically.Vicky Vlachou studied History, Archaeology and History of Art at the University of Athens. She is currently a scientific member (Belgian) at the École française d’Athènes (EfA, membre). She is a scholar of the Early Iron Age Aegean (ca. 1000-600 BC). Her doctoral thesis (2010) was awarded the G.P. Oikonomos prize of the Class of Letters and Fine Arts of the Academy of Athens. She is a member of fieldwork and publication projects at Xobourgo on Tenos (Cyclades), Amykles (Sparta), Itanos, and Anavlochos (Eastern Crete). She is the editor of the collective volume Pots, Workshops and Early Iron Age Society: Function and Role of Ceramics in Early Greece (Études d’archéologie 8, Brussels 2015).

Conservation & Revitalisation of Rajbagh Silk Factory, Srinagar, India – Connecting Memory & Material Culture Towards Building a Future.
2021-10-22 11:00 - 12:00
Gurmeet S RaiMs. Director, CRCI (India) Pvt LtdRegister hereThe Rajbagh Silk factory is a strand of the cultural legacy of Kashmir. Silk from Kashmir finds references in ancient, medieval and modern period narratives. In the 19th-20thC the bivoltine silk and crafts such as pashmina shawls from the valley were much in demand across the globe.Embedded in the legacy of silk are also memories of pain. Kashmir has been embroiled in geo politics for decades which has caused much suffering in the valley. Further it was in 2014 that a massive flood hit the valley that devastated many lives and properties. The Rajbagh Silk factory was inundated with flood waters for over four weeks. Not losing hope, the workers managed to repair about 10 of 150 looms and several preloom machines and work at the factory resumed.The Government is supporting conservation and revitalisation of the factory under a flood recovery program. The conservation plan seeks to use this opportunity as a trigger to conserve the built heritage, revitalise silk and handicraft based economy using innovation and creativity to enhance lines of communication between artisans and entrepreneurs across the nation and abroad, thus ushering in opportunities and hope for the artisans in the valley.Gurmeet S Rai is an architect with specialisation in heritage conservation and management. She is among the first generation conservation architects in India and has undertaken projects across India related to architectural conservation, management plans for world heritage sites, urban conservation and development strategies for historic settlements, sustainable cultural heritage tourism plans, preparation of advisory and policy documents. Gurmeet was awarded ‘Award of Distinction’ by UNESCO under the Asia Pacific Architectural Heritage Awards in 2002 and 2004 following which she has been on their jury for over 15 years. In 2011, UNESCO appointed her as the lead consultant for preparation of ‘Cultural Heritage policy for Punjab’. She has also undertaken international assignments in Nepal and Myanmar and has been an advisor to UNESCO in heritage sector in several countries in South East Asia. She is currently a member of the Steering committee of TERRA2022, World Congress on Earthen Architectural Heritage (Getty Conservation Institute).

Marija Gimbutas: A Magnificent Vindication
2021-10-22 10:00 - 11:30
Join us for a virtual Round Table to celebrate Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994), UNESCO’s 2021 Centennial honoree. Marija Gimbutas was a professor of archaeology at UCLA and internationally renowned for her study of the arrival of the Proto-Indo-European languages and culture in Europe. One of her most original (and controversial) contributions has been validated recently by aDNA: the Kurgan Hypothesis and the arrival into Europe of the Proto-Indo-European speakers around 3500 BC. Introduced by Ernestine S. Elster, the participants include James Mallory, David Anthony, and Dorcas Brown with Willeke Wendrich as moderator.Register to attend here James Mallory was born in 1945 in California and educated at Occidental College (AB, 1963) and UCLA where he received his PhD in Indo-European Studies (European Archaeology) in 1975. In 1977 he joined the Archaeology Department at Queen’s University Belfast from which he retired as Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology in 2011. He has specialized in both Indo-European archaeology where he has published In Search of the Indo-Europeans (1989), The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (1997), and The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (2006) and Irish Archaeology (The Archaeology of Ulster, 1991; The Origins of the Irish, 2013; and In Search of the Irish Dreamtime, 2016). He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy. David Anthony is an archaeologist of the Eurasian steppes (esp. Russia, Ukraine, & Kazakhstan), known for his interdisciplinary research on the origins and spread of Indo-European languages, combining evidence from archaeology, ancient human DNA, linguistics, and comparative mythology. His most significant book, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, won the Society for American Archaeology prize for best scientific book in 2010. His entry into the Indo-European debate was facilitated by Marija Gimbutas’s groundbreaking English-language syntheses of eastern European archaeology. He is an associate in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, working in David Reich’s ancient DNA lab; and an emeritus professor at Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY. Dorcas Brown was co-director of grant-supported studies of museum collections in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Hungary (her advanced degree is in Museum Studies); and later of archaeological excavations in the steppes near Samara, Russia and Razdolnoe, Ukraine. Singly or together, Brown and Anthony have published 70+ articles and chapters, including since 2015 three co-authored in Science and three in Nature on a variety of related topics: Bronze Age migrations out of the steppes proven by ancient DNA, with profound implications for the Indo-European debate; the domestication of the dog, from ancient wolf & dog DNA; the domestication of the horse, from ancient horse DNA; the origin of dairying in the steppes, based on dairy peptides preserved in dental calculus; and male adolescent initiation-into-warrior rituals, connected with their discovery and excavation of a Bronze Age boys’ initiation site in the Volga steppes. She is retired from Hartwick College.Introductions by Ernestine S. Elster. Elster was a graduate student of Gimbutas and participated in four of her archaeological expeditions. She is currently the director of the Mediterranean Laboratory at the Cotsen Institute. Moderated by Willeke Wendrich, Professor, UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, is the Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Welcome Event
2021-10-21 17:30 - 19:30
In person with pizzaGeneral introduction to the program and experimental archaeology with Dr. Wake demonstrating and teaching cordage makingOur first ever in person event

The Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidauros: New Finds Rewrite the Function and History of the Most Important Sanatorium in Antiquity
2021-10-16 10:00
UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture | Embassy of Greece in USA | UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology | Archaeological Institute of America–LA County Society | presentVassilis LambrinoudakisProfessor Emeritus of Classical ArchaeologyUniversity of AthensRegister hereAfter registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.The unexpected finds during recent excavations in the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidauros shed new light on the origins, cult, and function of Asclepius, the main Divine Healer of the Graeco-Roman world. An amazing ground-floor building that features α peristyle and basement hewn into the rock was excavated at the Tholos, the famous classical circular building with underground, meander-like passages. It defines the highly debated and mysterious function of the Tholos as the cult place of chthonic Asclepius, and explains his presence in Epidauros in the 7th century BC. A small portico, found under the later Abaton, preceded the latter as a primitive dormitory hall. It provides evidence for healing through incubation already in early archaic times. An ash altar and accommodations for ritual meals around it explains the parallel magic cure through the consumption of sacred food from the very beginning of the cult. The new finds enrich our knowledge of the sanctuary’s history and general healthcare in antiquity.Her Excellency Alexandra Papadopoulou, Ambassador of Greece to the United States, will provide introductory remarks.Vassilis Lambrinoudakis is professor emeritus of the University of Athens; corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris; and the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna. He studied History and Archaeology at the Universities of Athens, Munich and Bonn. He is member of the German Archeological Institute and the Austrian Archaeological Institute. He excavates mainly in Epidauros/Argolid and the island of Naxos in the Aegean See. He also conducted excavations on the island of Chios, in Marathon/Attica and in Palaiomanina/Acarnania. He directs projects of enhancement of archaeological sites in Naxos and Epidauros. In 2003, he earned the first prize of Europa Nostra for the excavation and the enhancement of the sites Yria and Sangri/Naxos. He has published 14 books and monographs, as well as 186 papers on ancient Greek architecture and art, ancient topography, ancient Greek religion, epigraphy, theory of Archaeology, and management of monuments. He was co-editor of the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC I-VIII) and of the Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum (ThesCRA I-VIII). In 2003, he was honored by the President of the Hellenic Republic “for promoting the Archaeology and the History of Greece throughout the world.”
